Africa

Egypt

Ethiopia

The inner ring road in Addis Ababa currently extends some 33.3 km around the city. It was conceived in the mid-1990s with the goal of connecting the five main radial routes into the city, which itself is located in the middle of the country, which run from the cities of Jimma, Debre Zeit, Asmara, Debre Marqos, and Ambo[1] to the capital. The ring road is unique in the fact that it takes into account the large amount of pedestrian traffic. In May 2009 a new interchange at Gotera was inaugurated; the interchange having been paid by the Chinese government and built by the Shanghai Construction firm.[2]

South Africa

South Africa has the most advanced road system of any African country. Most of the major cities' ring roads were built in the 1970s. Well constructed, they are on par with the best in the Western world.

Libramiento Arco Norte a toll road partly under construction being built around Mexico City.

Periférico Manuel Gómez Morín, Guadalajara, Jalisco. The ring has a gap: it starts at the Federal Highway 44, circles around the city as a 3+3 lane highway, becomes a 2+2 lane road in the Tonalá municipality, and ends abruptly in the Federal Highway 90.

Anillo Interno 210, Monterrey, Nuevo León. The beltway is almost a complete 3+3 lane highway. In clockwise it starts in the intersection with Avenida Constitución and continues until Avenida Gonzalitos – Fidel Velazquez, then Avenida Nogalar, Avenida Los Angeles, until the intersection Churubusco – Avenida Constitución. The beltway is a complete freeway except for the part from Avenida Los Angeles – Churubusco until Avenida Constitución (east part of the Beltway).

Tijuana-Rosarito Autopista, Tijuana, Baja California. Currently under construction, it will form a bypass around Tijuana connecting Federal Highway 2 to Federal Highway 1 in Ensenada.

Massachusetts

I-495 forms part of a complete beltway around Lawrence. I-495 runs along this beltway between exits 40 and 47. The rest of the beltway is formed by Interstate 93 between exits 44 and 48 on that highway, and the entirety of Route 213 (AKA the "Loop Connector", which lent its name to a strip mall in Methuen).

In the city of Akron, a beltway (albeit rectangular-shaped) is formed by three different Interstates - Interstate 77 travels alone on the eastern part (between exits 122-125), Interstate 76 travels alone on the western part (between exits 18-20), I-76 and I-77 share the northern part (signed as exits 20-23, using I-76 exit numbers), and Interstate 277 forms the entire southern part (4 miles)

Asia

Afghanistan

Highway 1 is a long circular beltway the connects the major Afghan cities of Kabul, Ghazni, Kandahar, Farah, Meymaneh, and Mazar. It is being rebuilt to modern standards by the international community.

The Chinese city of Shanghai gained its first ring road in the inter-war years in the form of the Zhongshan Road, a partial ring that enclosed the existing urban area, which was primarily made up of foreign concessions. In the 1990s, an Inner Ring Road was constructed, mainly consisting of elevated roadways built on top of the Zhongshan Road, but which eventually made a complete circle around the urban core. A Middle Ring Road and an Outer Ring Road (the A20 Expressway) were later added.

The Antwerp ringroad is one of the busiests roads in Europe with over 180,000 vehicles a day. A motorway bypass encircles much of the city centre. Known locally as the "Ring" it offers motorway connections to Brussels, Düsseldorf (Germany) and Liège, Ghent, Paris (France) and London (United Kingdom) and Rotterdam and Bergen op Zoom (Netherlands). The banks of the Scheldt are linked by three road tunnels (in order of construction): the Waasland Tunnel (1934), the Kennedy Tunnel (1967) and the Liefkenshoek Tunnel (1991). Currently a fourth high volume highway link called "Oosterweel connection" is in the tendering stage. It will entail the construction of a long viaduct and bridge (the Lange Wapper Bridge) over the Eilandje (a neighbourhood in the north of the city) as well as a tunnel under the Scheldt. The completion date is as yet uncertain. The cost of the connection is estimated at € 2.2 billion. Due to a lack of public support, the construction is delayed until a referendum has been held.

Brussels is circled by two ring roads.

The city centre, sometimes known as "the pentagon", is surrounded by the "Small ring", a sequence of boulevards formally numbered R20. These were built upon the site of the second set of city walls following their demolition. Metro line 2 runs under much of these.

The town is skirted by the European route E19 (N-S) and the E40 (E-W), while the E411 leads away to the SE. Brussels has an orbital motorway, numbered R0 (R-zero) and commonly referred to as the "ring". It is pear-shaped as the southern side was never built as originally conceived, owing to residents' objections.

Currently a high capacity ringroad is in the early stages of planning. It will be built next to the R0 to increase its capacity by 100%. Completion date is set to 2014.

Czech Republic

Finland

Kehä 0 (Ring 0), a conceptual approach to routing traffic away from the very centre of the city, to develop greater pedestrian access areas in the centre, the so-called "carless centre". Though this is the least legitimate in the sense of what is commonly thought as a ring road, merely consisting of ways to route traffic, it differs from the other ring roads in that it would consist of a fully circular network of routes around a focal point, rather than I, II and III, which are properly only semicircular, being as they are, limited by the sea on one side.

Greece

Athens is encircled by the system of Attiki Odos motorway with three main avenues, forming a Π around the Athens Basin. To the northern side, the main section (number 6) connecting Elefsina shipyards-industrial zone with the Athens International Airport in Spata and counts about 50 km. To the western side, Aigaleo Avenue, encircling Mount Aigaleo and to the eastern side, the Hymmetus Ring. As supplementary avenues there are also NATO Avenue, running across the Elefsina Basin next to Mount Aigaleo, Katehaki Avenue, connecting NE (Papagou) and SE (Ilioupoli) suburbs of Athens aligned with Mount Hymmetus and finally Varis-Koropiou Avenue, connecting the vicinity of Athens International Airport and the SE coast of Athens, near the suburb of Voula, in the back side of Mount Hymmetus. To the south side (coast), Poseidonos Avenue (Or "Paraliaki (Παραλιακή): Greek for "Coastal (Road)") runs from Piraeus (Faliro Interchange) to Voula, aligned with the coast, until it meets Varis-Koropiou and then it continues to the countryside Sounio Avenue, towards Sounio and Lavrio.

The quality of the encircling system varies from motorway of high standards and fully computerised control and service (northern section of Attiki Odos) to more simple two-lanes avenue, like Aigaleo Avenue. Most of the system, maybe except the mountainous parts (Aigaleo, Katehaki and Hymmetus Ring), is a high-speed traffic system of roads. Usually the most speedy traffic is noticed on the coastal Poseidonos Avenue, thus making it need increased attention.

Dublin has three generations of partial ring roads. Due to its location on the sea, there is no complete ring road as yet. with the combined South Circular Road and North Circular Road forming the oldest, and inner pair dating from the 19th century.

The M50 motorway forms the middle, most complete and most heavily trafficked (85k-90k cars/day) ring road with an eventual plan to form a complete ring via an undersea tunnel or bridge.

The Outer Ring Road forms the newest partial ring, running along the west of the cities outer suburbs. Eventual plans are to link it to sections of the R121 road which provides a similar service in the north west of the city, with land being reserved for this.

In addition, Dublin City Council has signed two "orbital routes" consisting of existing roads, but following these requires turning at many junctions.

Moscow Central Ring Road is a planned road which will consist of parts of Moscow Small Ring and Moscow Big Ring. Planned length is about 442 kilometres (275 mi), it will be opened in 2015.

Inside the Moscow city limits there are three ring roads: the central Boulevard Ring, which is generally two lanes each way with narrow tree-lined parks between the carriage ways; the Garden Ring, which has at least four lanes each way and no gardens; and the Third Ring, which was constructed in the late 1990s and early 2000s and combined existing roads and new highways. A fourth ring, between the Third Ring and the MKAD, is planned.

Slovenia

Spain

M-30, which at a mean distance of 5.17 kilometres (3.21 mi) to the Puerta del Sol has been overtaken by the city in most of its 32.5 kilometres (20.2 mi) length.

M-40, which borders Madrid at a mean distance of 10.07 kilometres (6.26 mi), with connections to the southern metropolitan towns and projects westwards to reach Pozuelo de Alarcón for a total length of 63.5 kilometres (39.5 mi).

M-50, which was planned as a full ring but is not "closed" as of 2008, though projects by the Autonomous Community of Madrid to connect both ends through a tunnel are being aired. It is 85 kilometres (53 mi) long and services mainly the metropolitan area at a mean distance of 13.5 kilometres (8.4 mi).

Also, the half-loop M45 runs between the M40 and the M50 at the east, where the two beltways are more separated; and there are plans to build a fourth full loop, the M60, which would be over 120 kilometres (75 mi) long and encompass the whole metropolitan area of Madrid. This proliferation of orbital motorways is partially due to the traditional high radiality of the Spanish highway network, which routed most cross-country traffic through Madrid.

The M60 Orbital Motorway runs 35 miles (56 km) and was created between 1960-2006 by the amalgamation and renumbering of several existing motorways (M62, M63 and M66) and some new build to create an entirely circular route around the city of Manchester and seven neighbouring Metropolitan Boroughs. In 2004, it briefly held the record for the UK's busiest stretch of road (when a part of the M25 was undergoing roadworks); the northern sector of M60 carried an average of 181,000 vehicles per day between junctions 16 and 17.